A major problem associated with current injection molding equipment is insuring that the mold ejector system, which may be spring biased into a fully retracted position, is both activated to eject the molded piece or component and then move to a fully retracted position prior to commencing a further injection molding cycle. If the mold ejector system is not properly operated, e.g. activated and then not fully retracted, this could lead to damage to the mold and/or the injection molding equipment thereby resulting in expensive repair work as well as a loss in crucial production time.
A variety of prior art arrangements are currently available on the market which assists with operation of the mold ejector system prior to commencing a further injection molding cycle. However, the known coupling members are manufactured specifically for a piece of injection molding equipment and are typically not interchangeable with various other molds which can be utilized on the same molding equipment. Further, the known coupling members can not be readily employed on other known brands of injection molding equipment. This causes a manufacturer to purchase a variety of different coupling members, depending upon the injection molding equipment and/or the type of molds being used with the injection molding equipment, to insure that the ejector system of the mold is completely retracted prior to commencing a further molding cycle. This lack of a universal coupling member, for coupling the hydraulic ejector cylinder to the mold ejector system, leads to increased production cost and inhibits utilization of a variety of different molds, without extensive and costly set up time, on the same injection molding equipment.
A further inherent problem associated with today's injection molding equipment is that there not any standards concerning the size of the bore holes of the hydraulic ejector cylinder or the mold ejector system. That is, the bore size can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer or from an inexpensive piece of equipment to a more expensive piece of equipment produced by the same manufacture. In addition, the spacing of a proximate end surface of the mold ejector system from an adjacent end surface of the movable platen, can vary depending upon the action of the mold, the manufacturer of the mold, as well as a variety of other factors and parameters. Such variations further inhibit the interchangeability and versatility of the coupling members which heretofore been employed.